Goddard first obtained public notoriety in 1907 when he fired a
powder rocket in the basement of the physics building at WPI. School
officials then took an immediate interest in Goddard's work and, to
their credit, did not expel him for the incident.

In 1914, Goddard received two U.S. patents, one for a rocket that
used liquid fuel, the other for a two- or three-stage rocket using solid
fuel. At his own expense, he began to make systematic studies about
propulsion provided by various types of gunpowder. This work resulted in
his classic study in 1916 requesting funds from the Smithsonian
Institution to continue his research. This was published along with his
subsequent research in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Publication No.
2540 (January 1920) entitled "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes."
In this treatise, he detailed a search for methods of raising
weather-recording instruments higher than sounding balloons.

Goddard
patented designs for both a two-staged solid fuel rocket and a liquid
fuel rocket in 1914. These drawings are from the patents.

In this 1920 publication, Goddard outlined the possibility of a
rocket reaching the moon and exploding a load of flash powder on its
surface to mark the rocket's arrival. The bulk of his scientific report
to the Smithsonian was a dry explanation of how he used the $5000 grant
in his research. The press picked up Goddard' s proposal about a rocket
flight to the moon and sparked a journalistic controversy concerning the
feasibility of such a concept. Goddard was widely ridiculed, causing him
to deeply resent the press corps, a view that he held for the rest of
his life.

By 1926, Goddard had constructed and successfully tested the first
liquid-fueled rocket. The flight of Goddard's rocket on March 16,1926,
at Auburn, Massachusetts, was a historic feat. It was one of Goddard's
"firsts" in the now booming field of rocket propulsion in military
missilery and the scientific exploration of space.

The first liquid-fueled flight lasted only 4.2 seconds, reached an altitude of merely 41 feet, and landed just 184 feet from its launch pad. However, this modest accomplishment marked the beginning of the space age. (Photograph courtesy NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)